If you put together everything that the Bible records Jesus saying as he was being crucified, you find there are seven sayings, or ‘last words’: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’; ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’ (to a repentant thief) ; ‘Behold your son: behold your mother.’; ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’; ‘I thirst.’; ‘It is finished.’ and ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’

For Lucy Winkett, rector of St James’s Church Piccadilly, it’s remarkable that several of these sayings reach out to others in a creative way, even at such a desperate time. But the fact that Jesus said anything at all also inspires her.

As a trained musician, she draws parallels between Jesus’ cries from the cross and the blues tradition of singing out your troubles, and shares her experience of singing the liturgy in a cathedral against considerable opposition from within the church.

Image by Jim Larrison, https://flic.kr/p/oLPqsc